by Randi Darren
“Okay. What’s the maximum salary for her current position?” Sam asked. “She’s an Empowered Representative, I think. Right?”
“Tech-two,” Matt said. “They can make up to about forty-five thousand.”
“Great. You were going to give her a raise higher than even that because she’s done so well for the last two years. Sometimes it’s the quiet ones who keep everything afloat that you need to reward,” Sam said.
“I was just going to give her a raise,” Matt said. His tone had become more and more flat the more Sam pushed.
“You were? That’s amazing, Matt. You’re a pretty nice person,” Sam said.
Blinking twice, Matt nodded his head.
“Yeah,” he said, his voice starting to become vibrant again. “Yeah, I’m a pretty nice guy, aren’t I? She’s gone unrecognized for so long, it’s amazing. Most agents leave in their first year or get promoted to another department.”
“Exactly why it’s such a good thing for you to give her that raise,” Sam said. “In fact, I’m going to call her into a meeting in a little bit and tell her the good news. Could you get me a form and her salary so I can show her what she’ll be making?”
“Of course, of course. Come on, we’ll go back to my office,” Matt said.
An hour later and with a couple forms sent by email, Abigail was suddenly making much more money.
Sitting down in his new office, Sam laughed to himself.
In some ways, it was almost too easy. With all the bureaucracy going back and forth, it seemed like a whole host of things could be done without anyone ever noticing.
Abigail appeared in his doorway looking frustrated and concerned at the same time.
“Ah, Abigail, thanks for coming. Come on in, sit, sit,” Sam said for anyone who might be close enough to hear. “And get the door, would you?”
Abigail shook her head and closed the door.
“What are you doing?” she asked. “I don’t even… what’s going on?”
Sam laughed and pointed at the seat across from him.
“Sit down,” Sam said. “As for what’s going on, I got a job. Here. Just like I said I would. Did you forget? I just happen to be your supervisor.”
Abigail sat down in the chair. Then she lifted her hands and pressed them to the top of her head. She looked like she just couldn’t believe what she was seeing or hearing.
“Okay. Yes, you did mention it. I didn’t even consider it, though. I thought you were just talking. So… you’re… you’re my boss now,” she said.
“Yep. Don’t you wish you’d slept with me now? Sleeping with your boss is a completely valid tactic,” Sam said. “Works everywhere. You just have to be discreet about it and know what you’re doing if you’re going to do it. I’ve done it myself a few times to get promoted. There was this really sweet middle-aged woman who was a real wild-cat. Had no idea.
“Actually… sleeping with your boss probably doesn’t work as well in this era as it used to. Hm. Pity. Was rather enjoyable for me.”
“No, Sam, I’m not… no… I mean… ugh,” Abigail said, letting her hands drop to her knees. “This is your plan? Become my boss and… what?”
“Well, this was just the first step. It’s to figure out what’s going on in your life, what people think of you, and what we need to do to get you promoted here,” Sam said. “If we can’t get you promoted here, we’ll have to get you a job elsewhere. But… this is the first step.
“So… wanna have a real quick go of it? This desk is pretty wide—I’m sure you’d be able to get up on it and we could give it a good breaking in.”
Abigail just sighed and shook her head. “Sam… stop. Please? I’m not… no. Just no.”
“Hmph. You’re so stingy. It’s just sex.” Sam lifted the paper in his hand and laid it down on the desk. “Here, maybe you’ll sleep with me after you read this. I got you a raise. You’ll be making—”
Leaning forward, Sam went to reread the numbers again.
“Fifty… fifty thousand?!” Abigail said, her voice going up in pitch.
“Yeah. Fifty thousand. I’m not done yet, obviously, since the arrangement was to get you to seventy, but we’re getting there,” Sam said. “How about you hop up on the desk now? Come on, what’s sex between friends? I’ll help you cover your mouth if you think you’ll be too loud.”
Abigail was staring at the paper. Completely in shock, unable to even respond.
“Sam? How’d… how’d you do this?” Abigail asked. “Am I going to get fired? Is this illegal?”
“Nope,” Sam said. “Matt, the HR goon, gave you the raise at his discretion. Put in all the paperwork and forms on his own. It’s a reward for your loyalty, or that’s how I told him to phrase it.
“Congratulations on your pay raise.”
“Thank you,” Abigail said, then sniffled. In a matter of moments, she’d started crying right there. “Thank you, Sam. Thank you.”
Grimacing, and feeling rather awkward, Sam looked away to the side.
He never really got used to the thanking part.
“Yeah, well, not done yet. Still more work to do. But we’ll get there. Moving right along,” he said. “And with me pitching in, we’ll have technically already solved everything. Just not a long-term solution. Can’t keep me around forever, after all.”
“Why not?” Abigail said, wiping at her eyes with her fingers. “Can’t I just… keep you around?”
Sam chuckled and shook his head. “No. I’d drain you dry pretty quick. You’d be living half a life for two. Besides, it’s good for me to keep moving on. You mortals have such infinitesimally small lives. But… as you’ve seen… I do remember the special ones, child of Alisa.”
Abigail grinned at that, dabbing at her eyes.
“Going to make sure her journal gets passed down to my own kids. You’re going to be our family’s good luck charm for when it’s all going wrong,” Abigail said with a laugh before she started crying again.
Ugh.
Mortals.
“Alright, get outta here. I have someone coming in right after you. Most of my day is going to be spent playing the part, I think,” Sam complained.
Abigail bobbed her head and got up out of the seat.
Smiling at him, she looked as if someone had just taken the weight of the world from her shoulders.
“Thank you, Sam. Thank you,” she said, opening the door and then leaving.
When he glanced at the clock in the corner of his computer screen, Sam realized his next meeting technically should have already started. He’d spent more time with Matt than he’d intended.
“Are you ready for me?” asked a voice from his doorway.
Looking up, Sam found the pretty lady from the other day standing at the entrance of his office.
With a wolfish smile, Sam gestured for her to enter.
“Of course. Come on in; close the door,” Sam said.
The woman walking into the office and closed the door, then sat in the seat across from him. He could feel the desire rolling off her.
She was apparently very attracted to him.
“I’m sorry, what’s your name again?” Sam asked.
“Lindsey. Lindsey Shire,” she said, giving him a smile.
“Lindsey… are you seeing anyone…?” Sam asked.
Lindsey’s eyes opened a bit wider, and she slowly shook her head.
“Great. Let’s… talk about you and what you want here,” Sam said, smiling at her.
I’m sure we can feed from her right before we leave the plane.
I wonder if she tastes as nice as she looks.
***
Sighing, Sam got out of Abigail’s car and closed the door.
“Working really sucks,” he grumbled. “I’ll be thankful when you’re settled and I can move on.”
“That’s life though, you know?” Abigail said, closing the driver’s side door. “You work and work and… work.”
“Hey, you know what would be great?�
� Sam asked, following her to the hallway that led to her apartment.
“I’m not having sex with you,” she said.
Sam clicked his tongue. “Why not? It’d be a lot of fun. I bet you’re delicious.”
“Because I’m not into the casual sex thing, remember? Sorry.” Abigail pushed her key into the lock.
“I’ll keep working at it. Eventually it won’t be as casual. You’ll give in. Then you’ll regret not having done it sooner,” Sam said.
“Maybe. Maybe not,” she said, stepping into her apartment. “You’re welcome to keep trying.”
There wasn’t anything Sam could do about her saying no. No was no, but it didn’t stop him from pestering her about it. She hadn’t told him to stop trying, after all.
Sam walked over to the couch and flopped down into it.
“So… what are you doing for the evening?” Abigail asked, pulling her short jacket off and putting it on a hook.
“I’m going to meet someone later tonight. I don’t need to borrow the car,” Sam said. “I should be home before dawn. No need to worry.”
“Oh. Oh, alright. You’re… hunting, then?” Abigail asked.
“Probably not. Tonight is going to be mostly business, I think,” Sam said. “If I can get some time in, I’ll hunt.”
“Could you explain it… a bit more to me?” Abigail asked as she stepped out of her work flats.
“It’s rather simple. I find a willing woman who’s not in a relationship and have sex with her. The bigger her orgasm, the better I feed. Then I move on,” Sam said.
“And the woman isn’t harmed at all?” Abigail asked, moving into her kitchen.
“No. Though I do suppose it might hurt her sex life. I’ll be the best she’ll probably ever have,” Sam said, grinning at Abigail. “She’ll compare every man forever after to me.”
“What’s it like being an extra-planar lord?” Abigail asked as she opened her fridge.
“An interesting question, and a difficult one to answer.” Sam rubbed at his chin. “I would say it’s a lot like… being mortal, really. I started off just as an Incubus. Much like so many of my kind, I was summoned to have sex and then dismissed once they were done with me.
“Many, many a woman called on me.”
Grinning, Sam couldn’t help but think back on the countless women he’d bedded. He’d slept with slaves, princesses, commoners, queens, anyone and anything all across the realms, years, and ages.
“What changed, then?” Abigail asked as she pulled food from the fridge.
“What changed… hm. What changed, indeed. My lover at the time was killed in front of me. Was just a… random accident. A pillar fell, broke really, and the roof collapsed on us.
“Being what I am, I just stepped out of the ruins. She… she didn’t. Couldn’t. She was already dead, but her body hadn’t died yet. Her head had been smashed open. There wasn’t a thing I could do about it.”
“I’m sorry,” Abigail said, her eyes moving to him for a moment. “That sounds awful.”
“I mean, I had only just barely gotten to know her. Slept with her twice that day. But as I sat there, waiting for her body to expire so I could leave, I realized humans are fragile things,” Sam said. “Fragile little things that I could easily barter with.
“Make trades with them and empower myself. Bring my status up amongst my peers. Be more than a penis with eyes.”
Sam chuckled to himself.
“So, as her body struggled to breathe even though her skull was popped open, I realized I had no power to do anything in that moment. I had to wait till her body died. I couldn’t kill her myself, as that’d break the accords.
“That was when I decided to change my approach and the way I handled things.”
“I mean… I guess that makes sense,” Abigail muttered. “A little callous though, isn’t it?”
“In what way? Is it callous that you’re cooking the flesh of a dead creature?” Sam said, pointing at the hamburger meat she was preparing. “I personally feed on Essence. Primarily it was Emotional Essence back then, but I switched to Life Essence. I eat Humans.”
Abigail frowned, looking at the meat in her hands.
“I guess… no, you’re right. It isn’t really callous if you’re doing what you have to do,” she said with a huff. Nodding at him, she dropped the meat into the skillet she’d been warming. “Like you said. You can’t eat pride.”
“You can’t eat pride,” Sam agreed. “And I wanted to eat much better… meat… as it were. So, every time I was summoned after that, I almost always slept with the client and then asked them what else they wanted me to do.
“I bartered for my rates and the time it would take me to solve the problem. A lot of the time, it was just… finding information. Retrieving objects. Making deliveries. Fairly simple tasks for me, but sometimes a bit more complicated for a mortal.”
Abigail didn’t respond. She was using a spatula to break down the meat she was working with into smaller bits.
“The easiest were the ‘kill so and so for me’ ones, though they also ended up being the most annoying. I think that’s where I went wrong, to be honest,” Sam said, thinking on it. “I ended up killing a few too many people linked with other creatures and spirits.”
“Other… other creatures and spirits?” Abigail looked up at him.
“What, you thought you were alone in this world? Werewolves, Vampires, Witches, Angels, Demons, Devils, Ghosts—all that nonsense is real and then some,” Sam said. “Your little workplace has a Witch and a Werewolf in it.”
“It’s Lindsey, isn’t it? She’s the witch, I know it,” Abigail said bitterly.
“No, she’s human,” Sam said.
“Hmph. I don’t believe that for a minute. She’s a Demon or something. She’s evil,” Abigail muttered.
Grinning, Sam didn’t respond. He just let Abigail continue.
Soon enough, he’d be going a block over to meet Irma for dinner and take her contract.
He had no doubt she’d sign it. That, or she’d have some minor revisions she wanted to make.
Sam was flexible, though. He knew where he could bend and where he couldn’t.
After that, he’d hopefully take her back to her place and have her for dinner.
All night long again.
Five - Dinner and a Deal-
Sam walked into the restaurant and looked around. He was exactly on time.
He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting to find. Many things of this plane and time were “known” to him through his viewing of the plane, but he hadn’t experienced any of it firsthand.
It was a strange feeling to know of things without ever having seen any of it—till the moment he did.
Irma had described the place as a “burger joint” and said she liked the food there.
Throughout the space were tables and booths all over. Servers walked around doing their jobs as customers ate their meals.
It looked a lot like a place you’d take someone on a date. Or at least Sam thought so, considering how many couples he saw sitting around.
That or bringing one’s family here. There are so many people with children here.
Sam found Irma.
She’d taken a corner booth and was already reading over a menu, a drink off to her right side. She was dressed in a business-casual outfit again.
Must have gotten off work and come straight here. That drink looks almost half empty. She’s been sitting for longer than five minutes, or she’s that thirsty.
Sam grinned and started walking over her way. If she was early, that meant she was eager.
Drawing closer to her, he also noted that she was drained of Essence. Everything he’d put into her the previous day—no small amount—was almost all gone.
There was just barely enough left over for her to last about two days before going into Essence starvation again.
It’d be worse this time than she’d ever experienced previously. Luckily for her, it’d only la
st a day or two before she went back to how she used to be. Withdrawal only went on so long before an Imp’s mind would adjust.
Irma lifted her head up as he got within range of her ability to sense him.
Having fed her and fed from her, he was linked to her for the time being. That link would fade and be gone within a month if he didn’t feed her or feed on her.
Smiling from ear to ear at the sight of him, Irma looked relieved.
Though anxious at the same time.
Sam smiled back and walked over to stand beside her.
Leaning down, he kissed her tenderly, his hand coming up to lightly tilt her jaw his way. As he did so, he fed her just a small thread of Essence. Enough to last her for several days in addition to what she had stored.
After lingering for several seconds, he slowly broke the kiss and sat down across from her.
Irma was bright red, her cheeks flushed and her eyes closed, a strange dreamy smile on her face.
“Sorry, it was just so nice to see you,” Sam said, picking up the menu. “That was rude of me to do.”
Shaking her head, Irma cleared her thoughts, then focused her eyes on him.
“Ah, no. It was… it was really nice. And thank you for the Essence… I appreciate the gift,” she said. He was glad she understood the intention behind what he’d done.
“Of course. How are you? You look very nice today,” Sam said, flipping through all the options of burgers available.
“I’m very well. Thank you, Sam. And it’s my treat, since I asked you here,” she said.
“Well, I don’t technically eat except for the joy of it,” Sam said. Then he looked up from his menu and caught her gaze. He smiled slowly at her. “But I’ll be happy to dine… later… if you’re willing? You’d be my treat.”
Irma lifted her chin fractionally, clearly fighting a smile and a blush. Her neck tensed, the muscles flexing as she fought herself.
“Yes… that’d be my treat as well,” she said.
“Perfect,” Sam said, letting the conversation fall off with that. He wasn’t in a rush. He genuinely enjoyed being around Irma so far. There was no need for him to forcefully fill the silence when it grew.
